Following tradition, students of the Class of 2011 wore white gowns and carried bouquets featuring their class color of red. Elected by her classmates to serve as student speaker was Alisha Maity, who will attend Columbia University in the fall. The guest speaker was Dr. Sheena Iyengar, the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor of Business in the Management Division at Columbia Business School.
“It has been a joy watching the girls grow from creative and inquisitive thinking girls to confident and proud accomplished young women, and I’m certain their Baldwin education – coupled with their intrinsic humor, wit and ambition – will take them to great heights,” said Sally M. Powell, head of school.
Several students were recognized for their outstanding academic performance at Baldwin and beyond during the June 7 Upper School Class Day. Certificates of Merit were awarded to finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Competition of 2011, including: Anjalie Field, Wendy Morrison, Sarah Parmacek, Brooke Simone and Gazelle Zerafati. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation winner was Anjalie Field and the National Merit Arkema Inc. Scholarship winner was Gazelle Zerafati. National Achievement Certificates were awarded to Akela Lacy and Ariane Walker-Horn.
Additionally, the Society of Women Engineers, which honors high school women who have demonstrated excellence in the fields of mathematics and science for three years, awarded certificates to Nadia Tareen (highest honors), Remy Walk (highest honors) and Adrienne Scott (high honors).
In foreign language, Gazelle Zerafati received the encyclopedic Oxford Classical Dictionary for earning four gold medals in the 2011 National Latin Exam, which had more than 150,000 student participants from 50 states and 12 foreign countries. Anjalie Field was one of 80 students in the nation to receive The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature for achieving Summa Cum Laude (gold medal) results five years in a row.
Outside the classroom, Stephanie Sheppard received the Community Hero Award, commissioned by Representative Tim Briggs’ Office. The award honors students who are dedicated to serving the community through extracurricular activities and charitable volunteer work – and Stephanie certainly has answered the call for service. She helped create the first independent school chapter of Special Olympics on the Main Line and was an elected member of Baldwin’s Service League.
On the playing field, eight members of the Class of 2011 will continue their athletic careers at college. Those students include Brooke Simone, Georgetown University Field Hockey; Sloan Warren, University of Virginia Lacrosse; Caroline Sawin, Williams College Squash and Golf; Sarah Parmecek, University of Pennsylvania Fencing; Alisha Maity, Columbia University Squash; Tess Candell, George Washington University Crew; Ally Kontra, Hamilton College Crew; Denise Cirelli, University of Delaware Crew.